Paris 2024| Amid Racism, Aya Nakamura & Yseult, Two BLACK Female Artists Killed It At The Ceremonies
Paris 2024 | Amid Racism, Aya Nakamura & Yseult, Two BLACK Female Artists Killed It At The Ceremonies
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By Jessica Card
You probably already know it, but I couldn’t let it pass. The 2024 Paris Olympics brought the world joy. From July 26 to August 11, the whole world had eyes only for Paris.
Yet, today we will focus on two BLACK female artists whose performances need to some recognition. I’m referring to Aya Nakamura and Yseult. There were lots of controversies around them performing linked to their skin color and origins and thus representing France. Because both are French but they’re also BLACK!
AYA NAKAMURA
Aya Nakamura performed at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games Opening Ceremony directed by Thomas Jolly.
When President Emmanuel Macron disclosed that Aya Nakamura was scheduled to sing an Edith Piaf song at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, all hellish racism broke loose!
The racism made it that she did not interpret any of Edith Piaf’s songs but rather her hits “Djadja” and “Pookie” as well as some songs from French artist Charles Azanavour (“For me formidable” and “La Bohème”).
Aya Nakamura was born in Bamako, Mali. When she was still a infant, her family relocated to France, she later obtained her French citizenship. Nakamura became the target of racist slurs and attacks.
They targeted her looks, body image, her skills as an artist but more importantly her skin color. Although many French citizens’ origins are African due to colonisation, the white French don’t consider them French. So, for them, it was impossible for an African descendent to represent France in front of the whole world.
In her music, Aya Nakamura sings in French slang, in “verlan“, she uses street language to to reach her audience. Her way of talking is generally associated with the wrong side of French society. Yet in France, youngsters of all backgrounds speak it and these are Nakamura’s biggest, die hard fans.
Aya Nakamura was the French artist with the most listeners. According to a press release from Spotify, Aya accumulated a staggering total of 24 million hours of listening worldwide in 2023, including 11 million in France alone.
For the longest, she’s been reaching 9,8 Million listeners on Spotify each month, that is until July 2024 when she was surpassed by another BLACK female artist, Yseult, the one that performed at the 2024 Paris Closing Ceremony.
YSEULT
Yseult performed a rendition of Frank Sinitra (or Claude François) “My Way” at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games Closing Ceremony. She was the closing act. Originally from Cameroun, she was born in France.
According to Spotify, Yseult dethroned Aya as the most listened French female artist with 10,9 millions listeners each month.
Aside from her body image and her lifestyle, Yseult was also targeted for being BLACK. She’s an “Afro feminist” and has been very verbal about colonization. Not able to attack her social background since her father is a C-level executive at Range Rover, they targeted her body shape, her words and ideologies.
In France, I feel pressured because I am myself
Yseult move from France to Belgium is also connected to the colonization past of both countries. She’d rather live in Belgium because “it acknowledged its colonial past” and “the citizen welcome diversity”. Her rejection of France, of which she’s a citizen, wasn’t well received.
What do we owe France?
Yseult has not been seen as a good representative of France by the white part of the country who sees her strong opinions as a lack of patriotism, a lack of gratitude. For the whites believe that Africa, before being colonized, was a poor undeveloped continent, filled with subhumans, and that colonization brought civilization.
I feel that we, the minorities, racialized people […] We owe something to France, but what do we actually owe? They don’t see what was taken from us or what was taken from our parents, that is to say dignity, respect and empathy!
Yet, the African BLACK artist killed it at the closing ceremony. She has been acclaimed and congratulated, a response that left her emotional.
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